I figure to get good at any other type of instrument, you have to practice, and practice a lot... play a guitar, learn your chords.. piano, scales.. etc. I guess using a tracker shouldn't be any different, so I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas for tracking 'practice', stuff that isn't necessarily making a song but is something you need to do over and over again to get good at.. I dunno.. any ideas?

I make lots of short little songs to quickly free-associate and achieve a different sound. Just for the sound. Sometimes you quickly learn something you will like to use in a full production.

Also tracking covers is a good discipline. Could be game music, or your favorite rock/pop/etc track. Or just fucking up someone else's source file.

I learned a lot going into your sources actually. Them crazy beats man. After a while, it made my beat concept better.

Ultimately, I think any and all music experience adds to the whole. I was always unstructured at my multi-track vocal/guitar tunes but now that i've spent more time using trackers, i find myself going into the multi-track recorder and my concept of structure is more in place for that medium, totally unrelated to using trackers other than overall music making experience.

i just recorded this in multi-track yesterday. now i take it and cut up the WAVs into small segments and load into tracker for better control, editing, mixing and production:

But the point here is that even the preproduction recording as-is is way better than they used to be. And somehow, what i've learned using trackers has been a big part of that. I'm sure it works both ways.

*EDIT - Here is where this 'Precious' song is at now that it is chopped up and produced all in the tracker.

Most composers have bits and peices of tunes here and there. Following though and finishing a song makes you more familiar with the song writing process. There are lots of different ways to practice but this is a big one for me.

Thanks for the tips guys. After looking at mickrip's loopproject site, I think making loops will be a good one. Trying different BPMs, rhythms, genres, etc. but not spending time making a whole song out of it. (Though like you say Sonicade, songwriting/the ability to finish a song is another skill that is worth practicing )